He went from being the broken-English-speaking son of poor
migrant farmers to earning a degree from UCLA and three master’s
degrees from Harvard School of Medicine.

Dr. Raul Ruiz will tell the story of his struggle out of poverty
next week at Mt. San Jacinto College’s Menifee Valley campus.

The Wednesday event is part of the Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Project, which aims to encourage
students to go into those fields. A $1.9 million two-year grant
from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Cost Reduction
Access Act will pay for the gathering.

The event aims to encourage Latino and low-income students to
get involved with science, technology, engineering and math, said
Leticia Luna-Sims, the Menifee campus’s STEM counselor.

Organizers want Ruiz to show students that if they grow up with
little money, with bad grades, they still can achieve great
things.

“He’s one of the most influential, young Latino doctors in our
area,” Luna-Sims said. “His story really motivated us.”

Ruiz was living in Coachella and getting ready to graduate from
high school when he had a realization. He dreamed since he was 4 of
being a doctor, but had terrible SAT scores and no money for
college, according to his background information.

His high school counselor paid for his application to Stanford
University. A friend of his brother paid for his application to
UCLA.

After getting accepted into UCLA, where he later earned his
bachelor’s degree, he walked door to door in his neighborhood
asking for donations. Ruiz scraped together $2,000, which helped
pay for his first semester.

He now works as an emergency physician at Eisenhower Medical
Center in Rancho Mirage.

He also volunteers as a mentor for local high school students
and recently returned from a humanitarian trip to Haiti. Ruiz gives
lectures to encourage impoverished students to go to college and
advocates access to health care for everyone who needs it.

Ruiz is set to speak at 9 a.m., but check-in time is at 8:30
a.m.

The speech is in Room 927 on the campus, 28237 La Piedra Road.
Check in is at the Learning Resource Center, Room 805.